1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a radio communication apparatus that performs security processing on an information processing apparatus, such as a personal computer (PC), and an information processing apparatus having the radio communication apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 8 shows a configuration example of the personal computer (PC).
The PC in this example includes a battery 1, a power supply control unit 2, a data communication radio module 101 and an antenna 111 thereof, an external interface control unit 4, a clock 5, a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 6, a power supply switch 7, a mouse 8, a keyboard 9, a hard disk 10, a main memory 11, a display unit 12 and a display control unit 13.
In FIG. 8, the same reference numerals refer to the same processing units as those shown in FIG. 1, which are referred in the descriptions on embodiments, which will be described later. It is not intended here that they limit the invention unnecessarily.
Operations to be performed by the PC in this example will be described schematically.
The CPU 6 detects input from the power supply switch 7. If any input is received from the battery 1 or an external power supply, the CPU 6 controls the power supply control unit 2 such that power can be supplied to the blocks (or processing units) If the blocks are powered on, reference clocks are output from the clock 5 to the CPU 6. If the power and clocks are supplied in a stable manner, the CPU 6 completely shifts to an operation, starts a program required for booting the PC, loads important information therefor from the hard disk 10, processes it on the main memory 11 at a high speed, and boots the PC such that functions of the mouse 8, the keyboard 9 and the display unit 12, for example, can operate normally.
After the processing of booting the PC completes, a user (or human) uses the mouse 8 and/or the keyboard 9, for example, to start application software in the hard disk 10 and connect a data communication module (such as the data communication radio module 101) to an external interface such as a USB, a serial port and a PC slot and uses the mouse 8 and/or the keyboard 9 to control the data communication module through the CPU 6 and/or the external interface control unit 4. For example, by signing a necessary contract with a provider or a communication carrier, data exchanges are allowed over the Internet or by e-mails.
Patent Document 1: JP-A-2002-111858
However, without the power supply to a PC, data communication such as exchange of mail is not allowed even by attaching a data communication card (which is an example of the data communication module) to the external interface.
Furthermore, a conventional data communication module is specific to data communication, and it may not be located even when it is left behind or stolen. If a user notices that it is stolen, it is difficult to prevent the leakage of information therefrom.
In order to prevent this, an expensive security tool, for example, may be installed to take security measures.